Hotel Babylon - Ethnicity Representation

Representation Of Ethnicity 

The Media play a diverse and significant role in the practical expression of racism and ethnicity. In the TV drama 'Hotel Babylon' which we have been studying, ethnicity is represented in different ways. Hotel Babylon gives an insight into the world of the luxury five-star hotel industry.

In the hotel, iconography within in the mise-en-scene is clearly visible as we see what we would expect to see in a luxurious, glamorous hotel. To start with, we see a stunning, well-presented receptionist, which gives a good first impression to customers entering the hotel. The receptionist is a white, blonde-haired which is often portrayed and represented in the media of being dumb but the audience can see she is clearly skilled in her profession as she acts quick under pressure. From the moment the immigration officers enter her territory we see a clear change in facial expressions. The receptionist is anxious and worried as she is fully aware as to whom this men entering are. The men enter in an informal manner yet they clearly indicate who is in charge by their gestures and stances. Freely walking in a line, one behind another with very little emotion, the men still have full authority. The immigration officers are all white which gives a contrast between the individuals who they are out to get.

Without any voice or hand gestures, the illegal worker slowly removes the newspaper in which he is moving down and shows his face and reveals his identity. With very little conversation between the receptionist, the receptionist pauses and commands the worker to go "down to housekeeping". From this exact point, the scene becomes much more fast-paced. Where the illegal workers are being kept, they are in poor conditions and very little lighting, which clearly portrays a negative aspect on the individuals. Editing then used to crosscut between the two different actions to indicate they are happening simultaneously. The audience sees close up shots which shows the workers facial expressions and moods in which they are feeling. With the lighting at the main reception giving off a positive, happy, bright effect which is in fact high-key lighting, contrasted with the dark, lonely, negative effect being low-key lighting we see the difference between the two different types of workers. Down in the basement it is dark and has a negative feel, which matches with the workers who are isolated down there. Within the first opening shots of this programme the audience already sees a clear divide between the black and white workers, which represents ethnicity as the two different ethnic groups are being divided which is not acceptable in today's society  Cinematography through lighting has been used effectively to create representations of ethnicity and power.

From the moment the audience is through the mise en scene down to the where the illegal workers are being kept, the mood and pace rapidly changes. The audience is shown to be a busy, dense shot with lots of movement and a clear sense of panic. Working in tight, condense spaces, a woman shouts to them all telling them the situation yet she says this in another language which shows to us they can all understand her. Being able to speak two languages also shows to the audience that they are bi-lingual which is a fantastic skill to have and can often lead to very high professions yet they are working in the basement of a hotel. They are working in poor conditions yet just due to their skin colour and ethnicity, they cannot gain a career in which they wish to pursue. The audience sees later on that the workers are in fact very skilled. The camera moves from a medium shot to a long shot which is able to see the complete frame and also to exaggerate the fast pace and the actions that are happening in this busy scene. The audience sees an establishing shot before the camera reaches the kitchen to show the action what is about to take place which gives the audience an indication of what is about to take place. The workers are clearly prepared for this scenario, as they know what to do and where to go which shows to the audience that they have practiced this drill before and in a way are expecting it. The workers being skilled gives the audience a clear divide between racial colour, which represents ethnicity. Also in this scene, camera movement is used effectively. The camera pans through the kitchen to engage the audience with the busy action occurring in the kitchen.

The hotel customers never see the black workers, which indicate to the audience that the illegal workers are no good to be seen in the public eye. This is a clear, negative representation of ethnicity.

The ‘staff only’ sign is a signifier. It is visible for the audience to see. The signified is indicating to the audience that only the workers are allowed in this particularly space. This gives the workers some freedom yet they are still of a lower status. 

Mise-en-scene can be used to represent codes of location which is shown in a shot which is very effective is when the camera is positioned behind bars and is looking out onto the action which is occurring. The camera being positioned behind the bars could be the illegal immigration's future. They could be imprisoned for illegally working in the hotel. There is a clear separation and divide between the two different workers. Ethnicity is represented through the positioning of the camera to give a clear divide between the two ethnic groups.

The workers are often shown in low angle shots which emphasis the powerlessness of the workers in comparison to the white workers which are usually shown in a high shot. This shows the divide between the two different types of workers and help construct representations of ethnicity. 

The individual, Abraham, who is unfortunate enough to get taken by the immigration officers, is a typical cleaner. In the shot we see everything we expect a cleaner to have, which is why iconography is used. The illegal workers workers are detonated as a lower status than the white workers, which is clear throughout the whole of the episode. This is a long shot. After Abraham is taken, the audience experiences silence, which intesiftys our attention and makes up apprehensive.

When the workers are tightly packed into the room in which they are hiding, one worker faints. This shot is initially a medium shot but then zooms into a close up to see the emotions and feelings of the worker who faints. As soon as this happens, another one of the workers knows exactly what to do. Not only is he working under pressure but he also has the skills and medial knowledge to help. With no support or guidance, the worker manages to make the worker recover within seconds of him performing a medial procedure. This shows that they are very skilled individuals yet despite their skills they cannot get a job for reasons being their ethnicity. 

The illegal workers costumes, being very plain and giving no indication to the audience of any importance have been used effectively to represent their authority and power compared to the white workers which are presented in a more smart form for the audience to see.

Again, when the workers are tightly packed into the room in which they are hiding, the woman does a head count which is when they realise one worker is missing. The workers all begin to pray which show they are a team and have a passionate love for each other. They act as a family rather than work colleagues as that's all they have. This shows they are genuine people despite their ethnicity, they wish to do this together. The denotation of the workers praying is that they are quite literally praying for hope yet the connotation could be associated with religion, culture as well as just a simple hand gesture if an individual was unsure of what they were doing.

To conclude, the way in which characters are positioned, the lighting, angles and skills all represent ethnicity in Hotel Babylon. Ethnicity is portrayed in many different ways in the media. There are many stereotypes, which are associated with ethnicity, and we have learnt throughout Hotel Babylon, ethnicity is portrayed in a negative way.

Below, is the clip we studied:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grAgxe94bRs

The Bletchley Circle Image Analysis

The Bletchley Circle

Above, is the image I have decided to analysis. This is a print screen shot taken from the TV drama 'The Bletchley Circle'. The dominant in this frame is the woman. This is what our eye is first drawn to. After this, our eyes are drawn to the lamp which is placed behind the woman. These contrast two very different things. The lamp is bright yet place to the back and also slightly out of focus, yet the woman is standing in front with low key lighting behind. The blurred lamp also gives us an indication that initially 'light' is a long way away and a long distance within her reach. The character could potentially be a facing journey into negativity. From her body language with her arms being folded, we can tell there is a negative portrayal of her. Her dark hair and dark clothing also gives us a negative feel about her and the current situation and story line. This is a medium shot yet we can still see a considerable amount of the background. The background doesn't tell us a huge amount about what is going on. We can see it is set in some form of house but it doesn't tell us much about the story line. The only real lighting we see in this frame is the light reflecting from the lamp which is low key lighting. The rest is very dark and gives a negative feel. The woman is the only object in focus in this frame which tells us that the main point of focus is on her. It gives us a sense of worry for the character as she is clearly not in a stable position. From this frame and the woman's body language it sees to the audience that she could have something deeper to tell and a story to uncover. The woman has a lot of space around her which could tell us there is a lot of space in her life for improvement and to make a stable decision. This also suggest that she is a lovely individual with nobody around or anywhere to escape to. She potentially could be trapped in this situation. The character and the lamp are positioned parallel which could suggest they will be travelling at a far distance apart yet will always daunt her. The time period in which it was set, the audience learns from the mise en scene that it could be a particularly hard time for woman. The character could be experience a form of feminism which potentially could be difficult for the character to experience alone. From her facial expressions we can see the character is a little confused. We do not know from this shot what the character is thinking or why she is positioned in this way yet the audience can only assume from that is surrounding her and what we can see within the frame.